


The Day Before The End of The World

by uniqlo_sweater



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - The Little Mermaid Fusion, But With Gods of Death, Dark, Eventual Romance, F/M, Fairytale elements, Matter of Life and Death, One-Sided Love, Sex Work, Shinigami, Slow Burn, Supernatural Elements, Thirty Days, Underworld, tw for murder
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-08
Updated: 2020-08-16
Packaged: 2021-03-06 02:53:51
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,207
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25786183
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/uniqlo_sweater/pseuds/uniqlo_sweater
Summary: For five hundred years, Ben has worked as a god of death collecting the souls of murder victims alongside his partner, Hux. However, things take a turn towards the end of his contract when Ben falls in love with the final person listed in his Book of Souls, Rey. Unable to allow her to die, Ben seeks out a powerful otherworldly being who grants him the chance to become a human but at a cost; if he cannot make Rey fall in love with him within 30 days, he must kill her. Strange things begin to happen after Ben saves Rey's life, and Ben may have changed the course of human history forever.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 6
Kudos: 8





	1. Seven Days

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hi! I'm trying to get back into writing again and this is an idea I've been thinking of on awhile now. I still need to get back to writing some of my other stories, but I've really wanted to write one involving reapers. I'll be adding tags as I go. Be aware that the language in this is not always appropriate and if you feel like I need an CWs, lemme know. Thanks!

Ben wondered how many times he had looked up at the night sky.

It was his favourite thing about the living world. In the underworld, the sky was never such a beautiful indigo blue. There were no stars. There was no wind. No rustling of trees’ leaves. The underworld was devoid of all these things. He closed his eyes briefly as he breathed in the scent of the marsh he stood in the middle of. In seven days, he would no longer be able to do this. Or maybe he would, but he would no longer remember his time as a god of death.

Somewhere behind him a portal zipped open and out flashed a tall ginger haired man in black wispy robes like his. He braced his arms forward as he entered the living world, breathing a sigh of relief when he saw Ben. “Thank goodness I found you,” he huffed, stifling a soft frantic laugh. “You’ve been spending a lot of time in the living world recently.”

“Have I?” Ben muttered, before glancing back at the sky. He sighed. “I guess I have. I just wanted to remember what everything looks like… before this is over.”

“Oh, don’t be so dramatic,” the redhead spat, rolling his eyes. He gave Ben a gentle pat on the shoulder. “Come back with me. Amilyn and the others are preparing a party for us.”

“You go back first. I’ll be back in a moment.” Ben said, shrugging of his friend’s hand. The man was unbothered by his actions, having grown accustomed to the indifferent way Ben responded to situations. Ben took a step forward into the marsh, a shadowy dark cloud weaving through the tall grass.  
The redhead crossed his arms and smirked, giving a small shrug. “Alright, but don’t stay too long. It’s a big event and it would be terribly awkward if only I showed up.”

Ben nodded, but by that time the man had vanished into the shadows, returning to wherever that portal had been. Ben wasn’t as good at opening portals as his partner. Instead, he was very good at visualizing the places he wanted to be. All his partner needed was a special compact mirror he carried around, and he could find whoever or wherever he was looking for and go there. Ben only needed to close his eyes, but sometimes his imagination took him places he was not meant to go.

He reached into the front of his black cloak and hauled out an old tattered book, letting the wind flutter through its pages. Each page told a story. Stories about countless people. It was a special gift from the gods, detailing the fates of individual living beings. Ben admired the brilliant black penmanship. It was oddly comforting to look upon after hundreds of years, but Ben had difficulty glancing over the names and remembering the faces and fates of the people listed in this book.

The book flew to the final, well worn page that listed the name of one young woman. The final name in his book. Ben glanced over the details of how she would die, but his eyes fell solemnly upon the moving image of her on the page. Before a person dies, this had allowed him to see what that person was doing. For years, Ben had watched the image with both eagerness and secret dread. It was natural for a god of death to become attached to their final soul. But Ben felt as if his attachment might be abnormal. He watched for a moment as she sat at her mirror, brushing her hair in the pale light of her room. He ran his large fingers absentmindedly over the image, a sensation budding within his chest that he could not name.

“Rey.”

Ben took a deep breath and closed the book, shaking his head. He placed the book back with his cloak and closed his eyes, knowing he should head back to the underworld. Yet his mind lingered elsewhere as he tried to imagine the place he wanted to go--

“Shit.”

He opened his eyes and was immediately aware he had made a mistake. He could hear voices around him as people walked by, laughing and chatting loudly. It was a familiar place. Ben gritted his teeth, running a worried hand through his hair as he tried to regain composure. Hux, the redhead, was going to want to kill him if he didn’t go back.

He was in Rey’s town. It wasn’t the first time he had gone there, but it had been happening at an increasing rate in recent days. He cleared his throat and lifted the collar of his cloak to hide his face as he walked down the cobblestone road, although he knew nobody could see him.

“HEY! Watch it, pal!”

Or so he thought.

Ben was stunned when he’d accidentally collided into a man on the street, nearly falling backwards. Normally he was not visible to humans, and he began to panic. It must be because of the full moon, he thought, glancing up through his dark hair at the sky. This had happened before. As an experienced god of death, it was embarrassing to accidentally be caught out as a human. Usually only those on the brink of death or who were written in his book could see him, but Ben was careful not to draw attention to himself around people who could. Especially Rey.

The man he’d run into was terribly drunk, his breath rancid and hot. He barely came to Ben’s shoulders, but appeared quite fiesty. Ben was never quite sure how to handle drunk humans. He’d encountered many kind of people, and his line of work usually put him in the way of souls who had just experienced extreme trauma. But Ben had always remained calm and stoic, something other gods of death had admired him for. He wondered how they would feel if they knew what he was truly like, the way he awkwardly was backing away from the man like a startled cat. He began yelling at Ben in slurred words he could barely understand, as Ben stared down at him silently.

A window of the building opened behind him and an all too familiar voice yelled down. “Hey, noisy scum! Shut the fuck up or I’ll come down there and beat your asses myself.”

Ben glanced meekly upwards to the open window to see Rey leaning outwards, frowning, her arms crossed over the windowsill. For a moment Ben could briefly smell her perfume, noticing she had been putting her evening makeup on. The drunk man began yelling up at her, asking her why she was butting into his business, and Rey rolled her eyes before her gaze met Ben’s. He noticed the way her face fell upon seeing him, but could not tell why. 

“Shut up, whore! Ain’t you got a man to fuck or something? You brothel girls are so nosy--” 

A shoe came flying down and smack the man in the face. Ben remained stunned, although somewhat relieved. He’d almost wanted to do the same to him, and was secretly thankful for Rey’s tenacity. It was something he liked about the girl. 

It was also something that would contribute towards her inevitable fate.

Ben felt himself disassociate for a moment as Rey yelled back at the man. “Ain’t you got a wife to go home and beat? Scram!”

The man rubbed his face angrily as he muttered back at her, picking up the shoe and throwing it at the brick wall behind Ben. Ben continued to stare into space until the man hobbled away. He only came back to when he felt Rey watching him.

“Hey.” she said, her voice suddenly cool. Ben was startled. He felt shivers through his entire body as he glanced back towards her, not missing the way her brow furrowed at him. She looked like she was on the verge of saying something to him but Ben wasn’t in the space to have a conversation with a girl he knew much too much about. 

He quickly nodded at her in thanks before trying to walk away, but Rey called out to him. “Wait.” she said, before leaving the window. Ben felt his feet lock in place. His mind remembered Hux now, and how that party for them was likely starting any minute. He closed his eyes and tried to think of where he wanted to go, hoping he would disappear before Rey ran down to find him.

But when he opened his eyes he found he was still there, as Rey strode towards him, her shoe in hand. He found himself unable to make eye contact with the curious girl, afraid she might learn something from him that she should not know.

“You look familiar,” Rey murmured, the words like poison to Ben’s heart. “What are you doing in the scrum anyways? You don’t look like you belong here.”

Ben knew what she meant. In the world where Rey lived, people were heavily divided up into classes. Rey lived in one of the lowest levels, a place only accessible by a tattooed code on people’s necks. He knew those of other classes could enter the scrum, but they usually took care not to be noticed.

“I don’t,” muttered Ben through his teeth, wondering what he should do. He almost felt like calling Hux for help but he knew the ginger man would go into a rage or a panic attack if he saw who Ben was with. “I lost my way… and ended up here.”

“Hm,” Rey thought about what he said with mild confliction, glancing down at the ground. She shuffled her foot awkwardly. Ben noticed she was dressed in a lovely green silk gown, something he had never seen her wear. Her hair was slightly messy as she must have been preparing to go somewhere. It wasn’t something she would wear for her work, he knew that. Or maybe it was.

“I was just about to go somewhere,” Rey shrugged, unsure of what to say. “My, uh, client is expecting me soon.”

Ben looked down at her wonderingly. “I see,” he murmured, beginning to turn on his heel. “I have to go as well.”

“Wait,” Rey said, and Ben nearly died when he felt her small hand grab hold of his arm. “You said you’re lost. Where were you going?”

“It’s alright. I think… I think I know where I need to go now--”

Rey tilted her head curiously. “Did you come here for the ball?”

Ben panicked at her words, knowing he needed to leave. “Oh no--”

“Do you mind walking me there, then? I’m always nervous to walk alone at night in the scrums.”

He could sense her worry and found himself unable to say no to her request. Rey relaxed when he silently agreed. “Oh good. Thank you. Sorry, I thought you might have been my client, that’s why I came down when I saw you. Well, and for my shoe. They said he was going to be tall, dark and handsome and well--” she shrugged. “You kinda fit the bill. It’s odd seeing someone as well dressed as you out here at night.”

Ben felt his cheeks flush lightly at her compliment. “I’m sorry to disappoint. I really did get lost. I’m not here for the ball.”

Rey shrugged again. “It’s fine, thanks for walking me. Kinda sucks he didn’t come get me himself but he was probably embarrassed to be seen with a prostitute.” She gave a fake laugh but Ben didn’t smile. “Sorry, I’m just joking. Sometimes the rich folk hire us for these events. It’s decent money at least. And you get good food. But they sure do make me antsy. I hate having to pretend to be something I’m not at these functions.”

Ben stayed silent as she continued to chatter nervously, her arm gripping his tightly as they walked down the street. Several people had stopped to look at them. Ben could feel them looking at both him and Rey in different ways. She was right about him seeming out of place in his completely black outfit, the billowy cape fluttering behind him as he walked. Rey herself seemed out of place in her gown, which fed into her anxiety. Ben wondered how she’d feel if she knew he knew that about her.

“Why do you seem so familiar?” Rey wondered out loud, glancing back at him. 

Ben grimaced. “I’ve been around.”

Rey teased him. “Oh? Well, I guess it’s common for guys of your status to come here--” she glanced at his neck but couldn’t see if he had a tattoo. 

“I don’t come here for that,” Ben found himself blurting out, causing Rey to nearly laugh. “I’m serious.”

“Oh, don’t lie.” she rolled her eyes, patting him gently on the arm. Ben felt a roll of embarrassment flush his body. “Why else would a gentleman like yourself come all the way here?”

You, Ben swallowed. The scrums was also the district in which Hux and him were often assigned to collect souls from. The pair were largely in charge of collecting the souls of murder victims, and unfortunately this was much more widely common in the scrums.

Ben tried not to think about it.

Rey was smiling now, staring ahead. Ben admired the rosy blush of her cheeks, how very alive she seemed right now. Blissfully unaware of what would happen to her in only a few days. He wanted so much to warn her, to tell her to run before it was too late. But he couldn’t. A god of death can never reveal to a human how they will die. It would change the course of history forever. No death was insignificant, each came at a price in the world of the living.

Images flashed before him, things he did not wish to see. Ben felt Rey tug tightly at his arm. “Is something wrong?” she asked, her eyes glossy in the streetlights. Ben swore he saw stars twinkle in her eyes.

“No, I’m fine.” he spoke lowly. Suddenly an image of Hux popped into his head. Ben knew he was looking for him. He felt relief that Hux had yet to open his little magic mirror and see where he was at. The party would be starting soon.

“We’ll be there soon.” she squeezed his arm. Ben merely nodded, afraid Hux would come find him any minute now.  
Soon enough, they approached what looked like a mansion. Ben was surprised. He’d rarely seen such places within the scrums, and Rey seemed to be able to sum that up from his expression. 

“Ugh, I wish you could come with me.” Rey bit her lip as she groaned. “Thank you so much for walking me here. Oh--”

Rey had nearly forgotten about her shoe. She held it up in the palm of her hand and chuckled. Ben smiled faintly as she glanced at him. “Now what am I supposed to do with this?”

Ben shrugged while continuing to smile. “Thank you for defending me from the drunk man earlier.”

Rey beamed at him, giving him a small curtsy. “Twas nothing. I’d do it for anyone.” She thrust the shoe into his unexpectant hands. “Here, keep this,” she winked. “You can return it to me another time.”

Ben’s cheeks lit a pale pink but he knew she was unable to see them in the moonlight. His heart sank at what she hinted at. He would return, but not for the reason she might be expecting. 

“I’d better go,” she said, running forward. She turned back to face him. “What’s your name?”

“Ben.” Ben said, his heart sinking as he drank in her silhouette. She continued to smile at him. It was devastating him in a way he couldn’t comprehend.

Rey put her arms behind her back. “My name is Rey. When you come back, you know where to find me.”

“I know.” Ben said, but only to himself. He watched as she ran towards the mansion, the sinking feeling in his stomach failing to go away. Until a hand reached out from behind him and hauled him backwards. Ben gasped as suddenly the darkness faded into light, his body leaned back enough to see an annoyed Hux glaring down at him.

“Where the devil have you been?” Hux hissed, but his annoyance wouldn’t last. Ben slipped Rey’s shoe into his cloak so Hux wouldn’t see it. The red haired man let go of Ben and helped him stand up firmly, raising a quizzical eyebrow. 

“I’m sorry, I got lost when I tried to open a portal back.” Ben replied quietly. They were in Hux’s room. Voices spilled from outside the door. “I tried coming back as quickly as possible.”

“It’s fine, the party hasn’t started yet.” Hux sighed with relief as he pinched his temple. “I knew I should have hauled you back with me instead of letting you stay, but it’s fine. Come now, they’re expecting us downstairs any moment now.” he patted him and began to drag him out of the room, not willing to let Ben escape. “After the party, it would be great if you took a bath. You wreak of human.”

Ben worried Hux could tell where he had been. But Hux didn’t push any further, simply relieved to have found him. Ben was relieved too. A moment too soon, he would have seen Rey and that would have caused some issues between them. Remembering Rey again caused a lump to form in his throat, as dread overflowed him. He thought of her request for him to visit her again, a deep sadness overcoming him as he thought of how they would meet again. He tried to shut away the thought, to remain in the present. Any hint of how he felt would be a problem for the underworld.


	2. Chapter 2

Hux linked his arm with Ben’s and opened the grand coloured glass door to the main dining hall of their celebratory party. Ben had always hated parties. He tried to smile as people greeted them, comforted by his partner’s presence. If there was one good thing about working with Hux it was that the two had formed a strange bond that was rare between gods of death. 

They took their seats near the head of one table, greeted curiously by their younger counterparts, Finn and Poe, another pair of gods of death who had only joined in recent years. Finn had been here longer than Poe, but only by a few decades. He’d had a different partner before Poe came along, and rumours had swirled about what his partner had done to betray him and the underworld. Normally when one partner betrays the other in this way, both receive the same punishment as they are a team. But somehow, Finn managed to escape any form of punishment. He never spoke of that time, and those who knew never mentioned it or his former partner’s name. Poe had arrived merely a decade or so before, but had a familiar air to him as if he’d been here before. The two were still considered to be in the lower ranks of gods of death and were mostly assigned to collecting the souls of children.

Ben often wondered how they were assigned. He knew about Hux’s former life, how he’d been a wealthy man with a wife and three children. But he’d gotten involved with some shady people and witnessed something he shouldn’t have, which led to his own inevitable murder. Hux had smirked when he’d told him the details, “I can’t believe I went out so easily.”

But Ben had no memory of his previous life, or any of his lives. Normally gods of deaths held onto these memories, the few in the underworld who were allowed to. It was rare for someone to not have a former life, but Ben could only remember the day he’d arrived in the underworld and how Amilyn had found him drifting down The River in a wooden boat.

The memory plagued him. There was a sense of discomfort over who he was and what his identity was. He’d worked hard as a god of death alongside Hux, and both had gained popularity within their ranks for their work. Hux usually handled the social side of their image, as Ben felt quite awkward surrounded by so many others who revered him in a way he didn’t know how to respond to. Most were slightly terrified of him, as he emitted a cold and somewhat sinister aura when one knew nothing about him. But Hux would roll his eyes whenever someone spoke about Ben with fear, telling them that they shouldn’t judge him without getting to know him first. 

Hux nudged Ben in the side after they sat down, telling him to greet Finn and Poe. The two young men seemed excited but intimidated to be sitting across from them. Poe was the first to speak. “It’s a pleasure to sit across from you both this evening. It’s not every day we get to talk with actual legends.”

Ben shuffled his feet awkwardly, and then thought of how Rey was still missing one of her shoes. Hux smirked, resting his chin on one hand. “Oh, stop with the flattery. It won’t be long before you get to our status anyway. I’ve heard many good things about the two of you as well.”

It confused Ben why the dead, like themselves, were able to eat food. It wasn’t the same as food in the living realm, although it appeared the same. Eating food of the living was forbidden, as was communicating with the living or pretending to be one of them. To do so would be top tier punishment. Ben felt his stomach sink as he thought of how much trouble he could have gotten himself and Hux into had anyone found out where he’d gone. Perhaps that was why Hux said nothing, or maybe he really didn’t know. Occasionally he glanced over at his partner who was smiling and chatting the night away with those around them. Ben felt as if he were in a fish bowl, separate from the world he was in.

He felt a hand rest on his shoulder. Glancing up, an older woman with lilac hair smiled softly down at him. Ben nearly rose to his feet to greet her, but she insisted he not do that. “It’s been awhile, Ben.” she said, still smiling. Ben nodded.

“Thank you so much for the party, Amilyn.” Hux interjected, flashing a dazzling smile at her in response. 

“It’s the least we can do for the two of you. You both have worked incredibly hard to get this far.” Amilyn said. Ben took a sip of his wine and set the glass gently down on the table.

“I can’t believe you guys will be gone soon.” Poe sighed. “What do you plan to do after your contracts are over?”

“Hm,” Hux leaned back in his seat and pondered for a moment, but Ben knew Hux had long since decided what he wanted. “For me, I’d like to either be reincarnated again or serve in the higher ranks.”

“What about you?” Finn asked this question, his gaze on Ben. Hux’s hooded eyes drifted over to his partner.

“I’m… I guess I would like to be reincarnated as well.” Ben said. Hux looked away as he spoke, adjusting himself in his seat.

Amilyn stared at Ben with a hint of worry. Ben tried to ignore it. An uncomfortable air lingered as the two men across from them wondered if they’d said something wrong. Hux cleared his throat. He gave Ben a gentle pat on the shoulder. “But we’ve decided to allow the Fates to deal us what they think we deserve.”

By the Fates, Hux meant that on their last day there would be a grand ceremony for the two of them where they must reach inside an icy blue fire and haul from it a piece of paper that would assign them to their new fate. Ben knew that Hux had never planned to be reincarnated again, and knew the only reason they opted for the ceremony was because of Ben’s own indecisiveness. Both had to be dealed the same fate, which often caused rifts between paired gods of deaths. 

But Ben didn’t want to remain in the underworld like Hux. 

~*~

Rey sat crouched on the floor as she wondered what to do about her missing shoe.

She had hoped that maybe the stranger she’d met might bring it back. After all, she had only recently bought the pair. She frowned as she dug out her money pouch and then sighed. “It’s not like I can wear my good shoes out. I should have thrown something else.”

“What’s the matter, Rey?” her roommate, Rose, asked. She leaned over the end of her bed.

“Y’know how I was late for the party last night?” Rey muttered.

“Yeah,” Rose nodded. She had also attended but had gone earlier that Rey since she also helped in the kitchens. “What was that about anyway? You never did tell any of us. Your lucky your customer wasn’t upset with you.”

“Well if he’d wanted me to show up on time he should have taken me there himself.” Rey said in annoyance, sinking down on the floor and sighing. “Before I left, I heard Mortimer, y’know the drunkard, outside yelling and harassing some guy. I threw my shoe at him to make him shut up, right?”

“Did he take it?” gasped Rose.

Rey laughed. “What’s he gonna do with my shoe? No, he didn’t, but the other man did.”

Rose scrunched up her nose. “What a weirdo, why would he take your shoe?”

“I gave it to him.”  
Rey crossed her arms over her stomach and glanced away as Rose became more confused. “You gave him your shoe? Why? Who was that man anyway?” She gasped again. “Your lover?”

Rey immediately shushed her, running up to cover her mouth. “No no no, dummy! Never. Don’t even joke about that, if the wrong person hears you say something like that here, gods know what kind of trouble we’d get into.”

Rose giggled. “I’m teasing, Rey. But why would you give some man your shoe?”

“Well, I kind of asked him to walk me to the party. I gave him the shoe because I couldn’t bring it with me into the ball,” Rey shrugged. “He was kind of an odd fellow. Very dark, very tall. Dressed totally in black. But what was weird was he was dressed like someone from the higher classes but he wasn’t here for the party. Which sector wears all black clothing?” 

Rose rolled over on her back and stared up at the ceiling, wondering. “I mean, we get customers from all the sectors, but I’m not sure about the black clothing. Did you at least get his name? If you gave him your shoe, I’m sure he’ll come back.”

Rey thought of him again, a strange chill overcoming her. “He told me his name was Ben, but that’s so little to go by. Ugh, I’m such a dummy. I should have just chucked the shoe in the window before I left, but I was just… there was something odd about him. I felt like I had to go to him.”

Her friend was staring at her intently, although perhaps she thought Rey to be a little crazy. Not long after, Rose broke in a grin and pinched Rey’s cheek who yelped. “I think normal people would call that a crush, Rey.”

“Ow! Stop! Don’t say that. I don’t have a crush on him!”

~*~

Rey had vowed to herself to never fall in love.

It sounded cliche. But Rey had been alone most of her life. Her parents abandoned her in the slums as a very young child, and she had no memory of their faces or their names. She’d been found and taken in by the orphanage, but the orphanage in the slums was no place for children. When she was finally old enough to leave, she’d gotten a job at the brothel. With no money or her own or any other prospects, it was her best bet towards building a life for herself.

She was quite lucky in that the brothel she chose to work for was of considerable ranking. They gave her a bed and fed her, which was all Rey could ask for. She didn’t mind the sex, but the number of men she slept with who were married, or their views of women made Rey feel disgusted. She promised herself she would never fall in love with anyone, because she could not imagine loving or marrying anyone and them paying someone else to have sex with them behind her back. 

If she was to marry anyone, she told herself, it would have to be someone from a different sector. It wasn’t unheard of for girls from the slums to marry above them and move away suddenly. The quickest way to assure this was by getting pregnant, but Rey had never met anyone who had swept her off her feet or who she could even dream of offering herself in marriage to. Never mind carrying their child. She gagged at the idea.

The balls were known to mostly be for the matter of introducing people to those of other ranks and sectors. But the entirety of last night Rey’s mind had been on someone else. She continued to think of the man in black, how he smelt like sea salt and grass. Being near him was like being near the ocean. His presence was all consuming, luring her towards him and then away again like the tide. She’d turned to watch him as she ran but he had vanished as suddenly as he had appeared. Rey had wished he’d gone to the ball as well.

She had to admit, if she was going to develop a crush on anyone it might as well be him. He had been so kind to walk her to her destination, when clearly he had other places to be. But Rose had made a good point about him potentially having been a customer. Even if he had denied it, it was a common response from any man. Rey frowned. 

When night fell and the stars twinkled in the sky, she sat by the window, eating a piece of toast. She sighed as she thought about starting work again, as lights turned on in the buildings surrounding hers. She bit into her toast and watched the people passing by, hoping to catch a glimpse of him again.

“I must be crazy,” she sighed. “Why would he come back already?”

Outside it began to rain. She watched as people opened their umbrellas or ran for shelter. A person without an umbrella, dressed in all black, stood outside her building. Rey’s heart stopped. Her blood turned to ice and she nearly dropped her toast.

“Ben?” she hollered, choking on a dry bit of her toast. The man outside the window merely nodded.

“Yes.” he said.

~*~

Ben knew he couldn’t keep the shoe.

He’d debated leaving it in the marshlands. At least if he went there, nobody would be suspicious. It wasn’t uncommon for him to disappear to there. However, showing up in Rey’s town was immensely risky. But keeping the shoe in the underworld was even worse. Human belongings tainted by the underworld posed a risk when returned, often becoming haunted by the souls of the dead. He’d made sure to avoid this happening, but worried about his own presence lingering on it.

When everyone had gone to bed or back to work after the party, Ben waited for Hux to sleep before slipping out. He glanced solemnly at the shoe. Six more days. He could hardly imagine.

He knew how Rey would die, in fact he knew every minor detail. She was well acquainted with her murderer, although Rey had no idea of his sadistic side. For years, a serial killer had been rampaging through the slums. It had become a regular part of life. Rey was to be his final victim, someone he had yearned over for years. The thought wrenched at Ben’s gut. 

When people die, especially so brutally, they are usually in extreme agony. They have had no time to process their pain or that they have passed. They had no control over the situation. Sometimes if things don’t go as planned, their souls turn into angry ghosts and gods of death have difficulty persuading them to come to the underworld with them.

Ben and Hux were surprisingly good at handling souls. Instead of allowing spirits to stay and manifest into something evil, they usually leashed them before they could escape and dragged them back. This helped contribute to Ben’s image as stoic and fearsome, because rarely did any of their souls become angry ghosts. Ben didn’t want Rey to experience that. If anything, he would want to comfort her in those moments, but Hux would definitely be against that.

He winced. Hux was bound to find out he’d become acquainted with Rey on that day. He prayed he wouldn’t get mad with him. 

And so Ben found himself wandering those familiar cobblestone streets. The moon remained hidden behind black clouds and the air turned somber as a heavy rain began to fall. Ben outstretched his hand, noting this was the first time that rain had touched his skin. “This won’t be good.” he grimaced.

He was surprised to see Rey at her window, as if she were waiting for him. He was even more surprised that she had remembered his name. He hadn’t expected her to. He nodded up at her and then removed her shoe from his cloak. Rey disappeared from the window and came out the back door, rubbing at her lips.

“You’re soaking wet!” she exclaimed, hauling him into the alleyway between her brothel and the next. “Don’t you upperclass folks have umbrellas or something?”

“Upperclass?” Ben blinked. “Oh no. It just began to rain so suddenly. Honestly, I kind of liked it.”

Rey stared at him quizzically before she grinned. She took the shoe from Ben’s hands. “Well thank you so much. I didn’t think you’d come back.”

“Why wouldn’t I?” Ben blinked again. The pair continued to stare at each other, Rey unable to read Ben’s blank expression. His eyes were cold, as if they were dead.

She coughed. “Ha, sorry. But I really am thankful.”

Ben smiled. It was a small smile, but something about it intrigued Rey as she studied his face. Ben glanced back to the main street before nodding back to Rey. “Now if you’ll excuse me--”

Rey grabbed his arm by reflex, and perhaps in desperation. “You’re leaving?” she asked sadly. She wasn’t sure what she could ask him to do next. Ben glanced at her in surprise, looking first at her hand and then at her face. Rey’s cheeks lit a soft pink colour as she apologized and let him go. She was afraid to lift her gaze to meet his. “I thought--”

Ben glanced at the brothel. “Oh,” he said. He could see the tips of her ears turn pink. “Oh no, I’m not here for that. I can’t stay long.”

“Why not?” Rey asked. “Is there something wrong with me?” She was panicking now, her voice shaky, but she couldn’t let him leave. Something inside her urged her to make him stay. 

Ben didn’t know how to reply. His lips parted as he tried to make sense of what she was asking of him. “No, there’s nothing wrong with you. But physically, we can’t--”

Rey’s entire body felt on fire with embarrassment and perhaps a tinge of jealousy. “D-Do you already have someone? But why would you be here then? Do you work for someone--”

Ben shook his head. “No, it’s not that,” he said softly. He took hold of one of Rey’s hands, which startled her. Ben didn’t miss how small and warm her hand was in his. For a moment he was silent, watching their hands as the rain continued to fall. He soothed his thumb over hers, mimicking what Amilyn had done for him many times to ease his anxiety. “I can’t explain it right now. You’ll understand why soon.”

She said nothing as Ben’s hand slipped from hers. The pair didn’t look at each other as Ben strode back into the faintly lit streets. Rey had half a mind to chase him down, but when she followed after him he was already gone.

Rey took her hand that Ben had been holding and started slapping herself in the face as the rain soaked through her clothing. “Stupid! Why did I ask him to do that? I’m so stupid.”

That night, while Rey laid with another men, her thoughts remained constant on Ben. She wondered what he had meant, and why he had told her she would understand soon. What was there she needed to understand?


End file.
